


A Joke, a Challenge, a Crush

by AGirlNamedEd



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: M/M, Schmoop, Yamcha is a terrible friend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2016-08-14
Packaged: 2018-08-08 17:30:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7766863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AGirlNamedEd/pseuds/AGirlNamedEd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It started out as a joke.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Joke, a Challenge, a Crush

**Author's Note:**

> idek what this is I thought of it at work the other day and here it is. I haven't written just straight-up Tiencha in a while and I missed it.

It started out as a joke.

It wasn’t even a particularly funny joke, either. Referring to Tenshinhan and Launch’s relationship as “getting Tenshin-handsy” was definitely not one of Yamcha’s biggest triumphs in the world of puns. But the important thing was that it embarrassed Tenshinhan. The normally stoic, impassive Tenshinhan’s face flushed so hard and so quickly that he had to sit down for a moment. And in the split second between making the joke and laughing at Tenshinhan’s reaction to it, Yamcha realised that his friend was _incredibly_ fun to tease.

So it turned into a challenge, a challenge to get Tenshinhan flustered.

Yamcha took every opportunity he could get away with to embarrass Tenshinhan. It was just so _easy_ once you knew what buttons to push. Tenshinhan liked to make people believe he was strong, stoic, with no sense of humour and even less of a tendency towards laughing. But Yamcha was finding out differently. Alright, so he didn’t appreciate the subtlety and nuance of a fine pun. And he liked to pretend innuendos went totally over his head. Yamcha knew better.

The longer Yamcha worked at it, the more things he started noticing about Tenshinhan’s reactions. There was a difference between just flustered and truly embarrassed, and it was a line Yamcha toed with caution. When Tenshinhan was flustered, he would stutter and bluster and get defensive. If he was really embarrassed, he went silent, jaw clenched, eyes hard. The first time Yamcha saw him make that face in reaction to something stupid Yamcha said, he felt like he’d been punched in the stomach. He avoided things that would really embarrass Tenshinhan, sticking to stupid innuendos to make him blush from the top of his head down to the middle of his chest.

Except it was in the middle of one of those jokes that Yamcha realised it wasn’t a challenge anymore.

Sure, it was still hilarious to watch Tenshinhan fold his arms to stop himself from wringing his hands, and the way he’d refuse to meet Yamcha’s eyes when he said anything even remotely sexual was hysterical. But there was something different about it. The blush that Yamcha used to find silly-looking was actually kind of endearing. Tenshinhan’s stuttering rebuttal was sweet, almost adorable. The way he’d glance at Yamcha’s face, flush darker, and look away again nearly brought Yamcha’s heartbeat to a halt.

Oh, sweet Shenron.

It wasn’t a challenge or a joke anymore.

It was a _crush_.


End file.
